Biography/Theory

Dr. Nola Pender

Nola Pender developed her Health Promotion model, often abbreviated HPM, after seeing professionals intervening only after patients developed acute or chronic health problems. She became convinced that patients' quality of life could be improved by the prevention of problems before this occurred, and health care dollars could be saved by the promotion of healthy lifestyles. After researching current models and discovering that most focused on negative motivation, she developed a model that focused on positive motivation. The first version of the model appeared in literature in 1982. It was revised in 1996 based on changing theoretical perspectives and empirical findings.

There are five key concepts in the model: person, evnironmen, nursing, health, and illness.